Bicycle Safety
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Study Confirms: Safer Bike Routes Get More People Riding
How effective are bike lanes at enticing people to ride? Portland State University professor Jennifer Dill has been looking into that question for more than a year, and her research is starting to get some attention. Using GPS trackers to map more than 1,700 bike trips, Dill found that about half of all bike travel occurs on dedicated infrastructure like bike lanes or bike boulevards, even though such routes comprise only eight percent of Portland's street network.
October 20, 2008
Portland Water Bureau Launches Bike/Truck Safety Campaign
Check out this video, via BikePortland.org, on bicycle safety, part of a Portland Water Bureau campaign to reduce truck-cyclist collisions there. Last month, the Water Bureau held a bike safety seminar, which involved cyclists climbing into the cab of a city truck to see (or not see) driver blind spots for themselves.
October 16, 2008
Manhattan Bridge Bike Path Mired for Years in Construction Bureaucracy
The Sands Street bike path, a physically protected approach to the Manhattan Bridge, has languished behind schedule for years, held up in the city's construction bureaucracy. The project serves as a prime illustration that livable streets hinge not just on DOT, but on other, more obscure city agencies as well.
September 30, 2008
Death of Cyclist Shocks Melbourne, Prompts Bus Ban
As I wrote in a post last week, the City of Melbourne, Australia, is working hard to make cycling easier and safer -- but not quickly enough to save the life of one cyclist. The day after my post a 33-year-old Melbourne woman was killed when her wheels slipped on tram tracks on Melbourne's main thoroughfare, Swanston Street, and she fell into the path of an oncoming Gray Line tour bus.
September 22, 2008
Sen. Jeff Klein to No Impact Man: “Hands Off My Car, You F–king A–hole”
A couple of days ago we relayed the remarkable story of Colin Beavan's close call with a careless motorist, which ended with the parties shaking hands. Yesterday, No Impact Man encountered another inattentive driver -- one State Senator Jeff Klein -- but this time there were no heartwarming epiphanies.
September 18, 2008
Ride for a Safer Queens Boulevard Tonight
In July, bicycle advocates and family members of Asif Rahman, who was killed while biking on Queens Boulevard earlier this year, called on the city to transform the "Boulevard of Death" into a street that safely serves all users. The effort to make Queens Boulevard a complete street continues tonight at 6:30 p.m., when Transportation Alternatives leads a group ride from the Queensborough Bridge to Elmhurst, the first in a series of monthly "bike pools." From T.A.:
September 12, 2008
Fatal Crash Was Preceded By Complaints About Nearby Intersection
Details on the crash that killed Jonathan Millstein Wednesday morning remain scarce, but traffic conditions on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope are notoriously bad for bicyclists and pedestrians. Officials at DOT and NYPD have appeared reluctant to address the problem, says Joanna Smith, who lives by the intersection of Eighth and Union Street.
September 12, 2008
One Year After $5M Promise, Downtown Brooklyn Safety Fixes Are Nowhere
The death of 8-year-old Alexander Toulouse on Saturday has re-focused public attention on the dangerous streets of downtown Brooklyn. Toulouse was killed by a turning postal van at the intersection of Boerum Place and Livingston Street while riding his bike with his father.
September 10, 2008
In Week of Carnage, Times Looks Askance at Broadway Traffic-Calming
Projects like Broadway Boulevard are intended, in part, to reduce auto-pedestrian conflicts.
August 26, 2008